Moreover it was customary for warships to be decorated ornately with hundreds of gilded and painted sculptures of Biblical. mythical and historical themes to glorify the authority and power of the king and to frighten or taunt the enemy. The 500 sculptures added considerably to the effort and cost of the ship as well as raising the ship’s center of gravity and contributing to its instability. During this period. no methods for calculating the ship’s center of gravity. heeling characteristics. and stability existed. So shipbuilders and captains had to design and learn how a ship handled through trial and error.